Hospital Dr., am I right to be annoyed

[elainecleary]

Last Thursday I unfortunately was admitted to hospital with URO-SEPSIS. I spent 5 days in hospital with intravenous antibiotics, fluids, etc. On Saturday the hospital Dr. upped my Preds from 17.5mg to 35mg. When discharged on Tuesday evening I was told to reduce to 30mg on Wednesday then 5mg every 3 days, until back down to 17.5mg, when I said I thought that, that quickly might bring on a flare she said no it wouldn't as I hadn't been on the raised dose long enough for that to happen.

As it was I had an appointment arranged with my lovely GP. on Wednesday morning, his first words after apologising for his locum not having spotted my UTI, (another story) were ignore the three day reduction, try weekly but don't push it, aim to be back to 17.5mg by the end of March.

Also while going over the instructions from the hospital Dr. my GP. suddenly asked me if I knew anything about cancelling my prescription for Tramadol, this is the only painkiller that works for me, and being aware of the strength, I treat very responsible, The Hospital Dr. had taken it upon herself to decide I should no longer have it, and had instructed my GP. to stop it.

Am I being unreasonable to be annoyed with the hospital Doctor.

I'm so glad that my PMR is being managed by a very clued up GP. who treats us as a team, and discusses everything with me.

If my GP. was one of the kind that just obeys the hospital Doctors willy-nilly, could I in a week or so be having a flare up, without the benefit of pain relief.

[olive2709]

My GP is just like yours a Angel ,and thank heaven for that , hospital docs live in a world of there own .

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Ooooh - nasty! Not to mention scary. Sounds as if you are OK now though?

I think I'd discuss it with your GP - and possibly PALS.

Theoretically the hospital doc was right about the speed of the reduction - practically is another matter altogether. As for not telling you she was recommending stopping the Tramadol that is an outright criticism of your GP's professional judgement. For most people Tramadol doesn't do much for PMR but if it works for you and you are responsible about it what is wrong with that.

Glad you have such a good GP - it makes all the difference. But it does work both ways - sometimes the hospital docs are better than a GP, sometimes a locum is better than your usual doctor because they see things from a different view point.